Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul~ Augustine

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It’s almost 3am in the morning and I can’t really escape my computer because a video i’m making is rendering. Sigh… rendering… but since it’s Easter Sunday, I thought I would like to share with you a message and an experience I have gone through in my life. Whether you are a Christian or not- Don’t waste your life.

Be it that you are young or old, it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing more traumatic than being at your moment in death and screaming out “I’ve wasted it, i’ve wasted it!”. About 2 years ago I thought the world was mine to conquer. I was young, I was fearless and I had a car to drive. Not that I took my chances to speed or anything, mind you at that point in my life I was already a dedicated Christian, I wasn’t afraid because I was young and I could look forward to a bright future. On my way while I was driving back home from youth group, I was leisurely talking to my friends in the car. Didn’t realise I sped through a red light. In that split second on a 6 lane road my car was pummelled. 3 Cars involved in the accident. The door on my side- rendered total loss. But my car was still moving so I pulled to the side. I was alive.

Picking up my brain I tried to retrace what had just happened. Sped through a light. Got smashed. Broken glass everywhere. Broken door. Then I looked at my legs. I looked at my friends. I looked at the other 3 damaged cars… Everyone was alive. Everyone was- unscathed. I had minor scratches. I was alive. If the opposite car was any bigger than a regular family sedan I would be either permanently paralysed or dead. But no. My door was about 3cm away from my leg. The glass shattered neatly around my body instead of my eyes. Thank God I’m alive

Did you know that this life of ours could be taken away so easily? Did you know that although you can make the choices in your life, your finish line is not yours to mark? Did you know that there’s a man in history called Jesus that gave up His life so that you can have freedom from every guilt you have?! Your life and freedom was bought with a price. A price of love that cannot be replaced. A freedom that can only be received if the receiver accepts the gift. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. For the non-christian, “this is what Jesus Christ offers: doubly belonging to God, and being able to do what you were made for.”- (John Piper) This is not so that you would avoid a wounded life. But to avoid a wasted life. The man called Jesus who died on the cross for all the guilt and shame we have had you in mind, knowing you before you were born and knowing what greatness and possibility you have and what you need. He wanted to give you a chance and to give you a shot at living in the fullness that you could. And did that, by conquering death. As crazy as it sounds. He rose again from death. Proving that He is God, proving that you can put anything to Him in hope.

This easter I want to share that your life is precious. Other people’s lives are precious. There’s something I hope for you to realise. In that moment at the brink of death I believe angels were guarding me. I believe and am thankful that I live, and that I can share with you this story. You and I have a purpose. From big to small things, you influence those around you. Never think that you have nothing to do with them. You are placed in such a position to do something. It doesn’t have to be anything heroic. Even just listening to your friend’s problem without saying anything would mean the world to them. So live your life. Don’t waste it. I’m not saying you can’t do silly things or that you can’t go nuts. But I urge you to find your purpose, to find what you can do, and do it so that you can love other people and treasure the beautiful gift of life.

It’s true, the youth of our beauty is only fleeting. No matter how hard we try to tighten up the sagging skin, no matter how we coverup with makeup. We will age and life is short. Meanwhile the character of your heart will pull through to your last days. You don’t have to be a perfect person to be beautiful but quieten down your busy lives and try and see that there is so much more about life than it seems! The world you’ve built around you is much smaller than what God has in store! Living to see the better for others, living to understand, living to live. Now how great is that : D?!

Here’s a thingo I just came across on tumblr. I’m not sure where it’s from so I shall link you all to where I found it.

Lately I’ve been attending a leadership class at church and we’ve been discussing a variety of interesting issues and what not. Yes I am a Christian and speak from a Christian perspective. You may have your own views yet us not argue so that this may be a fruitful blog entry that will challenge or lead to interesting thoughts for you!I do not claim to be a goody-goody and even more so do not claim to be a nice person; although I am trying out of love, and do certainly hope to have achieved being so in any way. However, what I do claim is:

-I am a child who has failed in many aspects in life- and I need a perfect God’s help.-I am a selfish child who has felt the weight of selfless love and have been moved.-I am a liar, a thief, etc and I am in desperate need of forgiveness.-I am hopeless and I need God’s hope.-I am limited and I need God’s unlimited-ness, and by God’s grace I am granted full access to such greatness.-I have realised that there is SO MUCH more to life than what we can all taste and see.

Now onto the topic of discussion. What does it mean to be living in this day and age?In the following much of the thoughts were inspired by the respectable S.M Williams (aka Stuart Murry), a religious lecturer from the Morling College in Australia and also a personal friend and mentor of mine, Pastor Derrick Hooper, a master’s graduate from the school. Let’s jumpstart our brains with a couple of questions:

1. What are the characteristics of Post-modernity.2. What does it mean to be a person living in the age of Post-modernity.3. Where will it take us?

To understand the place in where we stand now we must understand a little bit of our context and where we’ve come from. Without taking it too far back we should look at modernism. Characteristics that define modernism, and I quote from Pastor Derrick Hooper, is shaped by,

So granted the obvious that post-modernity is… well the age after modernity- meaning that the concept of modernity and all the others prior had failed miserably. Hence now we’re stuck in this undefinable situation- confused but not confused but confused yet again because we have so much knowledge of the world; but confused in the end again because we’re not all too sure what to make of it all. Hence post-modernism is,

Shaped by: failure of modernist ambitions; failure of modernist ideas; discovery of different stories; stalling of progress and development.

In a nutshell the youngster generations with people like me (i’m only 21), are very open to listening to stories and thoughts- we like a challenge but may not necessarily take it to action. On that note however, big stories and big ideas is a different issue. As we have been taught and seen for ourselves that these big movements have failed- then every other big issue we move onto as a humanitarian group will surely fail also; therefore there is no point and no hope in trying. Let things go with the flow and let that be as how it should be. Our minds tell us to mind our own business and not try to have a sticky beak at anyone else’s problems because society tells us that they’re not worth our precious time or that no-one wants a random’s act of sympathy- or so to say. (Sounds a bit like you or your teenage kid? Well it definitely sounds like me) We believe people can be opinionated and can do what they feel is right or whatever makes them happy- but nobody really cares because… we’re all opinionated and subject to our own beliefs.

We like what modernism brought over- science proving things but we realise that science still cannot prove everything and as a result- we let occasional things slide when the problem cannot be resolved. This has brought to our attention that people are not perfect and that many things have gone ‘cray-cray’ in society. We recognise that there are many issues in society thus finally realise that people matter. Relationships matter. -but… not that we really truly care.

Hmm. Interesting. Our lives when put together as a group seem kind of glum? Especially when we can see many things go pummelling from hero to zero. eg. rates of teenage women getting abortion (it’s a big topic to discuss in depth but you get my gyst for there is not much time on this post to talk in full detail) We don’t know what we are and we don’t know where we’re heading towards. What we do know is what we aren’t and what we don’t like.

The majority of popular society fights for many rights for different minority groups. In the end, the minority groups aren’t heard anyway although they are entitled to whatever they believe in. (I’m sorry i’m getting tired of typing and am in hope to end this quickly… Hopefully I have been entertaining enough to this point in this post) The problem with this is that nobody in these minority groups are every really heard, respected- or even if they are; the big group of popular society will not give a damn.

For one, the Christian group, and I write from my own experience, is greatly ignored. I’m not quite sure why. Perhaps people have experienced bad memories from a christian or well… i’m quite sure what it may be. At the very least what we claim to believe is belief in an eternal God over a dying world. What I can say though is, it is cruelly hard to be ignored and even have people make jokes about what one holds on dearly. For example when one says “JESUS CHRIST!” as a replacement for a curse word, I feel deeply offended for this is my King’s name which means everything to me, that has been reduced to a meaningless bypass word in a matter of milliseconds. Take heart though for all of you brothers and sisters whom are also Christian that like Paul I find that this is also a blessing in its own way. Being in the minority or the rejected group means that we too understand what it means to suffer. May this be of encouragement to you that you are not alone and that you know how it feels so that if any person you may meet during your journey of life you could be of encouragement to them for you can empathise with them what they are going through.

For it is granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. Philippians 1:29-30

So I will peace out now for my arms feel like jelly and brain is shutting down. May God bless your day and may you enjoy it because you are still alive- whether you are christian or not. ❤